The Secret to CPU Growth?
by Pudding and Candy
Summary: In what was supposed to be a brief and normal visit to Lowee for Neptune and Nepgear in the Prologue, things take a different turn when Neptune reads the title of one of the books that Ram threw at her. Being bored from waiting in the basilicom, a waste-of-time adventure (with some shenanigans mixed in) begins.
1. Chapter 1

Well, this was one of those times where I try to write something for another story and draw a blank for days. This story opener, was written to get things going again. And so, this story branches off from Victory's Prologue and into its own adventure of shenanigans.

 **Disclaimer:** Neptunia franchise is owned by Idea Factory/Compile Heart.

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Derailed Prologue**

It was another normal day in Gamindustri. The CPUs had just gotten kicked out by Histoire from Planeptune and back to their own nations while Neptune and Nepgear went to get some work done. Now, as per the usual routine, they still decide to goof off even after Histoire's lecture and go visit the other nations instead. First, they went to Lowee, where Neptune got attacked by books. Well, it was more like Ram threw books at Neptune, but after a short greeting, Nepgear went into another room to read with Blanc and Rom while Neptune was stuck with Ram.

After avoiding many books thrown at her, Neptune finally sat down and breathed easier. It was no fun trying to entertain Ram this way, but with Nepgear busy with Rom and Blanc in the other room, this was all that was there to do in the Lowee basilicom. Picking up one of the books that were thrown at her, Neptune read the title on the cover, " _CPU Biology_ huh, what's this about?"

"Hey wait! Gimme that!" Ram said, while running over and forcefully grabbing the book away.

"Oh I get it! You studying about how CPUs grow up right? Hmhm..." Neptune asked, knowing what this might be about.

"Ugh, you weren't supposed to read that."

"Does it have something to do with Blanc getting angry or jealous at a certain feature of Vert's? Because I've seen plenty of those."

"I guess you know huh... Well, I am doing this for myself though."

"For yourself? Are you trying to outgrow Blanc? That shouldn't be too difficult, hehe."

"I have to think about my future. I realised there can only be one CPU for Lowee, but I think Blanc might favour Rom, so I gotta do something to make myself look better, and there's nothing better than to get something that they _don't_ have."

"That's a good idea, still, I think I know what you mean..." Neptune said in response, peering over to the room that Nepgear, Rom, and Blanc are in all in their own world while she and Ram are out here.

After a few moments of silence, Ram had an idea, and stood up ready to act. "All right, since we're stuck out here, why don't we actually solve this?"

"Huh? How are we going to do that?" Neptune asked, unsure of what they were going to do to figure out the conundrum of how a CPU might get "bigger".

"Duh, we're gonna go off to the other nations and find information from their books too."

"Oh! That's a good idea! Better than waiting here all day long. Nep Jr. is out by now and we'd be off visiting other nations and then eventually finishing the Prologue, but since she's taking so long, we may as well derail the story!"

Deciding to go on a different adventure, Neptune and Ram headed out the Lowee basilicom and closed its doors, while Nepgear, Rom, and Blanc are still in the inner room engrossed in reading. Since Neptune and Nepgear visited Lowee first, Lastation and Leanbox's visit events have not been triggered yet and now leaving Nepgear behind and taking Ram, Neptune figured it would be easier to head to Lastation and then Leanbox. Since going back to Planeptune without Nepgear would only spell trouble since Histoire expected work to be done. "Oh right, one more thing..." Neptune said, while taking control of the scene.

 **Nepgear has left the party.**

 **Ram has joined the party.**

Even though it was an odd sight for the two to be travelling together, they arrived at Lastation without much trouble and went straight into the Lastation basilicom and into the library. Inside, everything was neatly categorised and arranged for easy access, so this was quite expedient for the two to find what they wanted. Of course, normal people would ask a receptionist or other employee for specific information, but give the topic they wanted to research, they decided to look on their own.

Thankfully for them, Kei was not around because she went off to start her business in time of peace. However, there was one person in the basilicom who was paying attention to Neptune and Ram's intrusion into the library. In another room was Uni, recognising the rather unusual sight on one of the cameras from the monitor screen. Of course, if it was Neptune and Nepgear maybe it would not be a problem since the two Planeptunians liked to goof off quite often. Today though, seeing Neptune and Ram of all people, only raised suspicion, for it must be an espionage mission by Planeptune and Lowee, conspiring to bring down the future-proof Lastation.

After rummaging through the library and making a big mess (There was nobody really minding the place, so Neptune and Ram did as they pleased), they found a few books that hinted at how CPU could grow, but in reality most of them were just "facts" made up by Noire.

"What a waste of time, this won't help us to get our answers we are looking for," Ram said, knowing full well of the facts from previous reading to differentiate from Noire's bogus information.

"Yeah, her writing indicates that hard work will increase your size, but... that would mean Uni will probably be twice as big as Noire right? But instead she shrinks when she transforms." Neptune responded, knowing what Noire truly does in her free time to appear "busy."

Of course, Uni would hear that last comment as she was hiding just outside the library door while waiting for the chance to catch the mismatched pair. As flattering as the last comment may be, Uni was not going to let these two go, she was ready to catch them and maybe even throw them out. However, now that Uni has heard a little bit about the topic they were looking into, she was a bit curious too. After all, Neptune was right, why does she shrink when she transforms while people like Vert grew even biggger? There was hope for an answer, as Neptune found a little tip from one of the books they took (And one that is obviously not influenced or written by Noire).

"Look at this, it says that it is theorised that CPUs do grow up, but at a slow slow slow pace..."

"Hmm, slow pace huh... Where's the source for that..." Ram replied, while looking at the reference to the text and in the back of the book. There she discovered it was from another book, which was authored by _Chika H_.

"Oh! So there must be a secret to CPU growth, but I'll bet Vert hid most of it so that she can always stay the biggest..."

"There seems to be other information within this book as well, but we should go to Leanbox to find out the real hidden stuff," Ram finished, while taking the book and hiding it in her blue handbag.

"That's a good idea, at least we have a lead, maybe once we find out the secret, we can increase in size too."

"Hehe, you think you think we'll ever match Vert?"

"We may have to catch up, but I am sure we can do this!"

Uni wanted to stop the two of them right now. Sure, it was most interesting there would be a secret how to make a CPU grow especially in "that" area, but Ram had just taken a book from Lastation and this was definitely espionage. Still, she could not bring herself to do it, the topic was simply too interesting. After all, there was always the issue of why she shrunk in size when she transformed, and if there was some way to prevent that (So that Nepgear would not ask if she was "stuffing them"), and also maybe if her size was to increase, Noire would take notice of her more.

As Neptune and Ram exited the basilicom and walked towards the terraportation terminal, they could clearly feel that they were being followed, and when the uneasiness grew, Ram spoke up.

"Hey Neptune, does it feel like we are being followed?"

"Yeah we are, but it's only Uni hiding behind that corner," Neptune replied while pointing to the exact spot that Uni was watching them. Immediately Uni let out a surprised reaction, confirming her presence and proving Neptune right. Of course, since Neptune somehow knew she was there, it was no use hiding and so she slowly emerged out right where the two could see her. "Hello little Noire, how are you?"

"How did you know I was there all this time?" Uni asked, she was sure that she hid herself well and also went unnoticed.

"Oh you know, even back in the library you were hesitant to arrest us and also listened to our findings too."

"She was eavesdropping way back there?" Ram asked, unaware that Uni was there listening in already.

"Yup, I kinda knew because Noire does it all the time, looks like Uni takes to her sister in this way."

"Right... So is that the reason you two came into library? And where is Nepgear?" Uni asked in response, still trying to grasp how Neptune knew all about what she did for the last little while.

"Yeah, it's always strange why Vert seems to be growing but all of us stays the same..." Ram said.

"Yuppers, so there must be a secret about this somewhere, besides, is it really all right if Noire is always bigger than you?" Neptune added, knowing this fact would definitely catch Uni's attention, while ignoring the second question on where Nepgear was.

"O-of course not! I... need to find out the truth too."

"That's good then, let us all go to Leanbox. And also let me do this as well," Neptune finished, before taking control of the text again.

 **Uni has joined the party.**

"I don't understand how you did that, but fine, we'll go to Leanbox. Just return that book to Lastation later." Uni said in response.

With the ragtag party assembled, they boarded the next ship from Lastation to Leanbox. Along the way, they sat down and wrote down some notes from Lowee and Lastation's books. Of course, while size and growth were still a mystery, there was also another factor to consider: HDD form. Naturally, the thought would bring up the next topic because HDD either increased, stayed the same, or... decreased a CPU's size.

"So... Neptune, how come when you activate HDD, you grow bigger?" Uni asked.

"Well, I had Nep Jr. look into this one before, and I think what we found out was that it all has to do with the processors we have equipped, although there are not that many core processor parts to equip with in the first place, but I think that's what affects things." Neptune replied, unsure herself why she seems to grow a couple of sizes when she transforms.

"(So is there something wrong with my processor parts?)" Uni thought, thinking maybe somebody tampered with her processor units, maybe that was the reason she shrunk a size when she transformed, and whoever did it was probably a horrible person.

"Aw, you're lucky you increase a few sizes when you transform, even with my new powers, I never did..." Ram added in, realising that no matter what processor units she wore, she was always the same.

"Not exactly, because of that though... Vert and Noire seemed to look at me like I am a threat sometimes. Also, due to that, Blanc would also get really pissy too, it's actually one of the reasons that the three of them teamed up against me several times in the past."

"What? They did that?" Uni and Ram replied, even though they knew that the four CPUs fought before in some battle history called the Console Wars, they had never heard of the event of three teaming up against one of them for _that_ reason at least.

"Uh huh. But... after a few times of that happening, I finally came through with a secret technique and actually won against all three of them."

"Secret technique? Is it something cool? I wanna learn it too!" Ram said, excited at what could be a new way to annoy Blanc.

"You won? That means even Noire?" Uni asked, interested in the fact that Neptune defeated Noire along with Blanc and Vert.

Neptune hesitated in responding, this was not a technique that was easily replicated, and things could end very badly when used. "Well, to be honest, it is more that I found a weakness to each CPU that I was able to win like that."

"A weakness? Is it something that we can learn?"

"Yeah! I want to know Blanc's weak point too!"

Neptune leaned closer to the centre of the table they were sitting at, obviously the two CPU candidates will not let up until she told them what she did, and so she really had no choice but to tell them. "Ok listen closely, but don't really try this out, because then they will know it is me who taught you guys this and they will be flying over in a raging vengeance against me," Neptune said as she prepared to tell them of the tale of the battle. Ram and Uni leaned closer and Neptune whispered the whole event in detail and described the process as well as the result.

Ram flew back in laughter while Uni was stunned, how could she have not thought about that before? Still, they understood why Neptune was hesitant to tell them all this, because it really was _that_ bad.

"Ahahaha! Blanc was reduced to that state! I cannot believe it!" Ram continued to laugh, even though it was so bad, she still found it hilarious.

"Well hey, it was three versus one, so please cut me some slack and also do **not** use it against your own sisters, especially with Blanc..." Neptune warned, hoping that Ram and Uni would be wise enough not to pull off what she did. Though Uni most likely would not do it, Ram would definitely do it as a prank, which worried Neptune greatly.

Thankfully for Neptune, the ship arrived at Leanbox, and so the party took their minds off Neptune's crazy story and continued on their quest. Now, because Chika is absent, the party was able to freely walk right into the basilicom and go wherever they wished without resistance. Neptune also knew that Vert would most likely be caught up in more gaming that she would not even know if something was stolen. Heading straight to the library, they began to search through all the books that could be of interest to the topic at hand. Just as expected, in Leanbox there were plenty of books on the subject, but most of them were about how Lady Green Heart is better than the other CPUs because of the "Bigger is better" idea.

After a short while, there was a book about CPU growth that not only theorised but outright confirmed that CPUs do in fact, grow up in body sizes, even though it may take a long time. However, what was most interesting is that there were also hints that the process can be sped up or at least growth can be controlled. Reading at the text closely, the three discovered that there was a certain secret potion that did indeed helped grow, which probably explained Vert's size.

"I knew it, she was hiding something all this time!" Neptune said, excited to crack the secret.

"So the question remains, where do we get this thing?" Ram asked, knowing that if such a thing existed, there must be the knowledge to create something like that.

"Let's look further down where we found this book, it will probably lead us to our answer," Uni pointed out from where they picked up this book. When they looked in the deeper part of the library though, there was a large green door that was locked, and also looking very suspicious.

"We need a key for this huh? No problem! I'll get it from Vert's room!" Neptune said, knowing that Vert would definitely have the key.

"Wait, you're just gonna go inside and take it from her?" Ram asked, knowing full well that Vert would not be that careless with security.

"She's probably just busy her games, I'll just greet her and take the keys, it'll be fine..."

With that, Neptune backtracked to Vert's room, and opened the door without knocking. Just as expected, Vert did not even realise the door was opened, as Neptune scanned the room and located the keys just on the corner of Vert's desk. Moving to the desk, she quickly greeted Vert, diverting her attention.

"Hi Vert!" Neptune said, while taking the keys in plain view.

"Hello." Vert replied, not even knowing who was in the room, being very busy fighting a boss monster in her game.

Without saying anything else, Neptune left the room and even closed the door behind her, stealing the keys was just that easy. Ram and Uni was surprised to see that Neptune did exactly as she said she was going to do and with such fluidity, almost as if Neptune had done this many times before. Still, it did not matter, they got their key, and now they would finally find out how to make a secret potion that supposedly will help CPUs grow.

Heading back to the library, the key fit perfectly in the slot, and the door opened flawlessly. Stepping into the room, the three found just one lone book placed on a pedestal, with nothing much else in the room except some dust and dimmer lights.

"No doubt this is the secret recipe..." Uni said, looking at the pages that listed ingredients and other descriptions for synthesis.

"But they all sound so foreign and... hey! Somebody ripped out the next page for the actual synthesis!" Ram noted, looking at the remains of the next page only still barely attached to the binding of the book.

"Hmm, it doesn't matter actually. These ingredients are just composite materials and I know what kind of synthesis this is just by looking at the ingredients, though it may take a little time, I think I can make it as long as we have everything..." Neptune explained, recognising the order of which the ingredients were placed while scribbling on the required items in brackets:

 _1\. Growth Booster x3 (2 Rainbow Petal + 5 Dolphin Tail)_

 _2\. Gelatin Base x2 (10 Dogoo Jelly + 5 Red Seed)_

 _3\. Wishful Growth x1 (1 Orange Jelly + 1 God Soul + 5 Moonlight Shadow)_

"It's going to take awhile to gather up everything, maybe we should just take this book with us too," Ram said, making a note of where to find the ingredients while stuffing yet one more book in her bag.

"Yeah, we should be able to go around and gather up everything no problem now that we've know what we need to get. So what do you guys think? Excited?" Neptune asked, knowing this adventure was about to get exciting, especially with their breakthrough.

"Yeah... I just don't know if those ingredients are something we'd want to drink though..." Uni commented, seeing as how some ingredients are... well, probably gross.

"Oh com'on, we can finally match our sisters, it's probably worth it! Though where are we going to make this? If anybody catches us while we're busy, it might be bad." Ram said in response.

"Well... I guess we can head back to Planeptune, I've got a nice place that can safely make this recipe. Though, to be safe, let's do some quests and take some shares from Vert so Histy won't get angry..."

"Ok, that sounds good. Hehe... the day will come when I will be bigger than both Rom and Blanc combined!"

"(Hmm, Noire might notice me if this works!)"

Leanbox did not have too many shares, so when the party did quests for their respective nations, they just did the easy quests and leaving Leanbox with some 5% of shares so it does not collapse and leave poor Vert in too much trouble.

Since all the nations have been visited at this point, the party is now able to quickly jump to wherever they wished without having to take the boat back to Lastation and such. Even though it took some time, they were able to go around the various places in Gamindustri and gather the items with relative ease. The only problem was the God Soul that was from an enemy in the Gamindustri Colosseum, which sunk when everybody went through the True Ending of _mk2_ , but thankfully there were leftovers of said material from beating the foe previously, so the party just took it from their old inventory (How Vert managed to get this item before _mk2_ is a mystery, most likely she used hacks though).

Also because some of the enemies they would hunt were not actual dungeons in _Victory_ , all the hunting was taken care of by way of events. Finally, after a long hunt, the party returned to Planeptune and hid away in one of Neptune's synthesis labs, where they had all the items ready for the creation of the unnamed potion (The name of the potion was scratched out on Vert's secret recipe book, probably to prevent anybody from looking for it online or spreading rumours. Neptune just dubbed it _Verty's Secret Busty Potion_ just because).

"Well, that narration sure went on and on, but we're finally back and ready to go on this!" Neptune said, while looking over the ingredients and having the recipes in front of her.

"Yeah, hurry now! You think we'll grow to a C with this?" Ram asked, unsure of just how effective the VSBP would be.

"We don't know if this will even work, especially with those ingredients..." Uni said, a little skeptical, seeing up front how it was made, but still interested.

Neptune started up all three work stations, one for creating each of the 3 composite materials, and in a short while they got their 9 Growth Boosters, 6 Gelatin Base, and 3 Wishful Growths. Now the real test begun, as they got each set of items ready to create 3 VSBP they started up the work station to full power and began with lighting up the Wishful Growth under heat. After the item changed colour and form from the heat, they added in the Growth Booster, and the synthesis looked like a sphere with swirling matter around the outside. Finally, pouring in the Gelatin Base, the whole thing melted into a liquid form and had settled a bit.

"All right, from here on we just have to wait a bit, we'll sit outside for now, that sure was interesting!" Neptune said, while taking a break outside with Uni and Ram.

"We've been out for quite awhile, I hope our sisters aren't worried." Ram said, realising that they had been on this adventure for quite some time now.

"That's right, I hope Noire is fine back home." Uni added in, also realising that Noire might be in a panic soon.

"I don't think they would really notice us just yet. After all, Nep Jr. is there with Blanc, and Noire... well, she's too preoccupied as always. At least we're all out here and having some fun while discovering the biggest secret in history!" Neptune proudly stated, knowing that it was true, making a potion to help with CPU growth is definitely revolutionary, even if this adventure was with people she does not usually journey with, it was all in good fun.

There was little that Uni and Ram could disagree with Neptune. After all, there are times when their own sisters are too busy, they probably could not remember the last time they journeyed across Gamindustri for something like this. The synthesis was almost complete now, and soon the three could potentially match Vert in a certain department, and that itself was exciting.

But as with all things in the world, nothing ever goes smoothly all the time. Knowing that the once Vert finds out her secret recipe is stolen, chaos would ensue, so Neptune stood up and headed in the direction of the general store. "I'll be right back." Just a few moments later, Neptune came back with a pouch in her hand, knowing it would come in handy just in case if something happened later on.

* * *

To be continued once other story is finished.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: The Alternatives are...**

By now, the VSBP was almost complete, but Neptune, Ram, and Uni were not about to wait around doing nothing. There was no proof that such a potion would work (or at least to the desired result), so they were thinking of another plan just in case if things do not live up to expectations.

"What if Vert purposely left this recipe so that we'd pick it up?" Uni asked, realising that it was so unlike Vert to just leave the keys there for Neptune to "borrow."

"Nah, I know Vert enough that she's too busy playing games... But still, it would be a good idea to find other ways if this one doesn't work or takes too long. That reminds me, the Planeptune library probably has books that explain everything, why don't you go fetch it Uni?" Neptune asked.

"Wait, why me?"

"Because Histy will be looking for me, and if I get caught it would be really bad. Don't worry though, I have something that will help," Neptune finished, while going off to make yet another synthesis, one that had an Invisible Ribbon (Nobody really questioned where Neptune was able to get it, but it was probably scouts or from inventory of a New Game+) thrown in. Within just a few minutes, the synthesis was complete, and Neptune brought out a clear liquid in a test tube.

"I don't want to drink that!" Uni complained, knowing that an Invisible Ribbon was dissolved into the bottle.

"No worries, you don't have to drink it, all I gotta do is apply a few drops to you," Neptune said, and actually going over and dropping a few drops of the liquid onto Uni before she could protest.

In just a matter of moments, Uni slowly faded away and seemed to disappear. Except that her general shape was still there if anyone focused and looked hard enough.

"Wow! That is so cool! When'd you learn to create something like that!?" Ram said, excited at Neptune's creation.

"It's a Stealth Camouflage potion. Now Uni does not have to worry about knocking out guards or hiding in cardboard boxes to avoid detection. Of course, I can only manage to make potions of this thing where as Nep Jr. was actually working on a Stealth Camo device. Still, it should be no problem getting those books now, you have about one hour!"

"All right then..." Uni said, rather surprised that Planeptune was capable of this kind of technology that not even Lastation was even close to developing something like this.

Neptune opened the side entrance to the basilicom and Uni went right in undetected. Meanwhile, Ram was still interested in the invisible potion as well as Neptune's other wacky inventions.

"That thing is just so cool! I wonder how rich you can get if you sold those."

"Nah, this thing is actually a top secret thing from Planeptune. But still, if we ever get to selling these, we might have some huge problems with theft and other issues, so only a few of us in Planeptune really know about this." Neptune responded, knowing that Ram probably wants to learn how to create it and play some nasty cruel pranks on both Blanc and Rom. Even though it would be funny, even Neptune knows that this would be going way too far and would eventually lead to Blanc making Planeptune into a wasteland once she finds out who gave Ram the ideas.

"Aww, can you at least tell me about it?"

"Nope! This thing has way too much potential to be abused, and Histy has been so strict with me not to use it unless it was a catastrophe."

Ram pouted, there was so much potential to do something funny if she could go almost invisible around Lowee and to basilicom, but surprisingly Neptune just would not budge on this one. "Catastrophe huh... fine, but you gotta teach me that secret technique you mentioned earlier..."

"Wait, that again? You know it's really dangerous..."

"I will tell everybody about you using this potion..."

"Whoa! Stop right there! Fine, just don't blame me if Blanc send both of us to our graves before our time," Neptune consented, before moving away to the more clear area to the right of the synthesis lab to demonstrate her secret deadly technique (in detail!) on how she once managed to beat Blanc, Noire, and Vert at the same time despite the odds.

Meanwhile, Uni had successfully infiltrated the library and was able to take a few books out without anybody noticing. It was strange, because all the books that she held on to for a time eventually also blended into camouflage with her. Whatever Neptune made with the potion is amazing, and even though Uni was never one to get involved in a fetch quest such as this one, the fact that she could walk around in complete invisibility really suited her. Perhaps it was things like this that made Neptune so hard to hate, and sure it was a ridiculous request, but there was definitely something about the way Neptune went about it that just compelled Uni to go along with it.

Getting back to the secret lab, Uni saw that both Neptune and Ram were not there, but only after a few moments that she heard the pair had returned.

"Hehehe! That was cool, so can you do a live demonstration sometime?" Ram asked, still smiling over Neptune's secret technique.

"I doubt I will get a chance to, and like I said, please don't _actually_ use it. I only did it because it was an unfair fight for me!" Neptune pleaded, knowing that Ram would definitely do something like that.

"Hey, you two ran off to do that? I wanted to at least see as well," Uni said, but she was still camouflaged and unseen.

"Huh? Oh Uni must be back, but where-" Neptune managed to say before bumping right into the invisible Uni and falling over. Thankfully, after the bump Uni's stealth was dispelled.

"Oh how convenient, so when you need to see somebody in stealth you simply hit them," Ram noted.

After recovering from the pain and picking up the books, the three of them looked right into researching more information about how a CPU can grow, hoping that Planeptune's books would offer an unbiased point of view and methodology. It was here that they read the real truth: Once a person becomes a CPU, their growth is essentially halted. However, that does not mean that a CPU will completely not grow at all, and in fact it was very much possible to keep growing through the use of growth promoting potions as well as regular exercise. Mentally, a CPU could continue to grow as well, but since the passage of time affects them differently, the growth or personality changes are next to non-existent.

Perhaps the most interesting fact they found from one of the books was that there is something that could prevent (physical) growth, and that was... bitching about it. The three could not help but laugh. Maybe it was a secret that was too good to be true, but this certainly does explain a certain _somebody_ that they know in their world. The other dubious thing they found was that a certain sect of the guild that was mainly underground offered up quests that also promote growth. However, this method was not restricted to just CPUs but the general populace as well.

Since they three of them had time to waste and nothing to lose (After all, it was quests, the worse they could do is shift shares...), they searched and found the secret alley way in one part of Planeptune where the secret sect of the guild had its base of operations. Inside, it was just like any other guild place with a reception desk, seats, and the like. There was nothing out of the ordinary, and it looked like this was just some sort of secret club that the party had found access to, and if the reward is really what it promised, then this would be another huge discovery of the year.

Naturally, since this guild hall is kind of a secret it was also quiet, there was no receptionist present, but there was a bell on the table to call one, and so Ram took the opportunity to press it repeatedly until Uni stopped her. Soon, from the back area behind the desk a figure emerged and attended to the party.

"Welcome to the-oh, it's Nep-Nep!" Said the voice, clearly belonging to Compa as she realised that it was Neptune with two CPU Candidates.

"Whoa! Awkward moments, I didn't expect Compa to be here. But actually that makes sense, no wonder she's even bigger than Nep Jr!" Neptune exclaimed, while Compa just got confused.

"So quests actually do help improve your size?" Uni asked, surprised that maybe Noire did not write bogus information within the Lastation books.

"That makes sense. You! Give us quests so we can grow bigger too!" Ram demanded, further confusing Compa and almost causing panic.

After a quick explanation, Compa was able to calm down as well as give some proper information along with the appropriate quests. Of course, this being Compa, the intention of the party was completely misunderstood, and so the 3 quests she got them to do were...

 _1\. Quest: A Fanciful Dinner_

 _Client: Ideal Factorial_

 _Description: I have been trying to cook up a nice meal for a close friend, but I am short on some ingredients while also busy with work, please help me gather some ingredients._

 _Requirements: Defeat Eggplanter x5_

 _2\. Quest: Renewal_

 _Client: Compile Hat_

 _Description: My dear friend always wear a head accessory, but throughout the years it has gotten worn out, so I would like some help for materials to make her a new one._

 _Requirements: Yggdrasil Leaf x2, Gale Stone x1_

 _3\. Quest: Desperate Measures_

 _Client: History Book_

 _Description: I have two... children-like people that I need to get them into the habit of working for themselves. It is not my style, but if you would, please gather up these materials for a disciplinary tool._

 _Requirements: Molten Shell x1, Sharp Fang x3_

The rewards for said quests turned out to be a bottle of Vitamins, an exercise schedule, and a protein drink respectively. Nevermind that the client names are very not-suspicious and their intentions were quite specific towards certain people. Of course, it was also a mystery how the party gathered said items when they do not have access to certain dungeons, but they were able to get the items with a little ingenuity. In the end though, the rewards were not quite what the party was expecting and they had to make a complaint.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know you guys were after that... umm, but you are all so adorable just the way you guys are..." Compa replied, finally realising that the party was after a growth in a certain area of the body instead of general health.

"Well Compa, we can't just stay like this forever. We'll eventually be made fun of all the time, none of us want to end up like Blanc." Neptune responded, not in the least surprised that Compa would get it mixed up.

"Yup, Vert always makes fun of my big sister, I don't think I want to end up like that..."

"And Noire keeps treating me like a child, I need to show her that I have grown up."

"Well all right, I do know somebody that might be able to help out, go meet up at this location when I have scheduled an appointment... Well, I am glad to see you're doing some work Nep-Nep." Compa said as she scheduled an appointment at the place with another guild member from this secret sector.

"I know... discovering the secrets of this world is fun and all, so that's why I also made have a party with common interests as well!" Neptune replied, also partly explaining the rather diverse group of people in her party.

"But where is Ge-Ge? I thought she was also with you?"

"Oh uh... she had... other things to do. We'll be going now, see you later Compa!" Neptune quickly said, while bolting out with Ram and Uni.

With an appointment set, the party headed out to meet the other guild member at another part of the alley way. This time, there would be no mistake, because Compa had obviously misunderstood and now the party is hopeful for somebody who understands their intent. After just a few minutes, the guild operative arrived and was about to introduce herself, when...

"Greetings, I have been appointed to... wait, Nep!?" Said the voice, belonging to IF.

"Oh look at that, from one familiar face to another," Neptune said while smiling.

"When Compa said three people going for a specific goal, I didn't expect this... but still, that's a rather weird party you got there."

"Nah, not really. Ram here is the mage, and Uni is the ranged damage dealer, and I can be up front as the tank, we're the perfect party as a matter of fact."

"That's not what I meant, I mean why are you guys together?"

"I was bored at home," Ram explained.

"I have my reasons, but this is for the future of Lastation," Uni responded.

"Right. Well, I know what you guys want. And if you're all willing to work for it, this could potentially work, but doesn't mean it will be easy." IF offered, while the party nodded their heads and followed her along.

 **IF has joined the party.**

Following IF for a short distance, they arrived at a deeper part of the Planeptune Alley, where they fought long and hard battles with a few things in the area and finally retrieved a Magical Shell. Going back all the way into the city, IF lead everybody to an underground lab. There, they entered a room with an operating table and had everything set up, except there were lots of doubts now that they were in here...

The Magical Shell they gathered up earlier was in fact to power operations for the place, and for some reason IF was just really confident that this would work. Of course, the party saw all sorts of things in this room: drills, chainsaws, screwdrivers, over sized syringes, and even a beam saber.

Uni remembered seeing similar equipment in Lastation for similar procedure, but of course she most recognised what this whole idea was about.

"Wait, this is surgery isn't it?"

"Well, yeah... how else do you think humans or even CPUs can change just over night?" IF responded, as she turned on the equipment and all the machines began to run, which only scared the party.

"Hm, I think there has to be a safer way to go about this..." Ram said, not expecting anything good from the looks of the drill or the chainsaw.

"Yeah. Well, it has been nice knowing you IF. Tell us how successful this all is from your next life!" Neptune said while about to run out from the room with Uni and Ram.

"I guess we'll just have to stick to what we made earlier," Uni said, also not convinced that surgery is the best solution.

"Hey wait Nep! We haven't even started yet! And what's this about what you made?" IF said, while running after everyone else.

After a short run from what looks like a death lab, Neptune, Ram, and Uni returned to the synthesis lab to check up on the VSBP they made from way earlier. Neptune had set it up so that after brewing, it would distill in 3 different potion bottles that were placed in a cooling area. It would appear that as they walked back into the lab, the brewing process was finally complete and they saw the three potions filled with the promised growth potion from Vert's secret book.

"Well, after this is complete, it really does look like something good doesn't it?" Neptune remarked, now seeing the contents of the potion was mostly clear with some bubbles. Of course, IF had been running after the three for the last little bit had caught up with them and also saw what was going on.

"Hey wait up! What was this that you made anyway?"

"Oh, a secret potion that might make instant growth possible. We found the recipe from a locked room in Vert's library," Ram explained, while pulling out the book to show IF.

"Wait, this is...! No way, you guys actually got a hold of this!?" IF asked, surprised at the sight of the real recipe.

"Uh huh, why is it such a surprise?" Neptune asked, seeing it was rare for IF to be this worked up.

"No way, this potion is what Vert uses to maintain her figure. I always thought she was lying, but to think this actually existed..."

"So then... this poition actually works?" Uni asked, now convinced that if a guild operative such as IF could confirm the potion's authenticity, then the VSBP could very well be the real deal.

"In theory, yes. Planeptune's intelligence division has been trying to get a hold of this for a long time now, just how did you guys end up with it?"

"Oh, while Vert was busy with her games, we found the secret room, and so I went to Vert's room and 'borrowed' her keys. Since the name was scratched out, I named it the Verty's Secret Busty Potion, pretty cool huh?" Neptune said, almost proud of the naming.

"Really? That's... ridiculous," IF responded, even if it was Vert, what Neptune explained was way too careless even for Vert.

But while the party of four were discussing the potion's existence, a loud landing crash sound was heard from just outside the lab. The party ran out, and there they could see the trouble in front of them: Green Heart, Black Heart, and White Heart. None of them were looking too pleased, and in fact they looked angry. Also following them was Nepgear and Rom, who looked a bit worried at what might happen soon.

"Uh oh, looks like we were found out..." Neptune said, seeing as how the rest of the world is now after them.

"So you guys really did steal this thing huh?" IF responded, knowing this might turn very ugly if a fight were to break out now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: La Dele Dele**

Earlier that day...

Vert had finally finished her gaming session, and it was one of the best clutch victories she had ever pulled off. Now, she was finally ready to do something else other than gaming, and looking around her room for something to do was when she noticed something rather odd. It was her desk, she had neatly organised everything when she returned after Histoire kicked out all the other CPUs from goofing off at Planeptune, so why was her important keys in a completely different place?

At that point, Vert had just remembered that during her game, somebody did greet her, but by now she was unsure of who and where said person went. Still, if that somebody did take her keys, there would only be one place in the basilicom where they would go, and so Vert rushed to the secret part of the library, hoping everything was all right. It turns out, everything was not all right. In fact, this was a disaster, Vert's top secret recipe book for letting CPUs (Or just herself really) grow to unreal sizes had been stolen! Transforming into Green Heart, Vert flew out of her basilicom in a mix of worry and rage.

The first place Vert rushed towards was Lastation. Surely, if some thief had made off with her recipe book, they would be at Lastation by now. Still, Vert has no idea how long her recipe book was stolen, or who had it since she was so careless when the thief took her keys. Yet still, she had to hurry, one Internet post of her recipe and everything would be over for her.

Meanwhile, as Vert was just circling above Lastation, inside the basilicom was Noire, all lonely. It was a strange, because Noire was certain that Uni was just around a short while ago, but the Lastation CPU Candidate was now nowhere to be seen.

"Hmm, there is still work to be done, but where could Uni have gone? Did she went out to take care of some quests? No, she would at least have told me she finished her work first..." Noire said out loud, while looking over at the list of things still needed to be done for the day. No sooner had Noire continued on with her work and possibly thought about checking security camera footage to find out about Uni's whereabouts, there was a knock at the door. "Come in."

Opening the door and entering the room was Nepgear, Blanc, and Rom. A rather strange party, but still not as bad as if Neptune was around.

"Please excuse us Noire, we were wondering if you've seen Neptune or Ram around here," Nepgear asked, having travelled to Lastation after she, Blanc, and Rom noticed that Neptune and Ram seemed to have just disappeared during the Lowee visit.

"Oh, is that why you're all together? Sorry, but I actually haven't really had time to notice anything that's going on. Rather, I was just about to find out what happened with Uni and-" Noire stopped mid-sentence, as she noticed Green Heart through the window of her room and immediately went there to call out the frantic CPU. "Vert! What are you doing?"

"Ah, Noire. I happen to have something very important stolen from my basilicom and I need to find where the thief is as quickly as possible," Vert explained, while also noticing the other CPUs in the room.

"Oh great, so all of a sudden everybody comes to visit Lastation..." Noire remarked, even though she was just Lonely Heart awhile ago.

"Could it be that everything is related? We've had missing people from Lowee and Lastation, and now Thunder Tits is missing whatever she's missing..." Blanc said, starting to think that perhaps everything could be related.

"Well, I am going to check security camera for footage of what happened to Uni, maybe'll be related..." Noire said, thinking it could just all be a coincidence. However, upon checking the security footage, what everybody saw confirmed Blanc's theory:

 _"Oh! So there must be a secret to CPU growth, but I'll bet Vert hid most of it so that she can always stay the biggest..." (Neptune)_

 _"There seems to be other information within this book as well, but we should go to Leanbox to find out the real hidden stuff," (Ram)_

 _"That's a good idea, at least we have a lead, maybe once we find out the secret, we can increase in size too." (Neptune)_

"Tch, so Neptune really did take Ram away, I am going to beat the shit out of her..." Blanc threatened, now seeing live that Neptune and Ram did run off together for nonsense (Well, not really, since their conversation was a bit interesting to Blanc, but right now she was more worried about Ram going along with Neptune's nonsense).

Of course, the next part of the footage was of just outside the basilicom, and it was not a pretty one for Noire:

 _"Yuppers, so there must be a secret about this somewhere, besides, is it really all right if Noire is always bigger than you?" (Neptune)_

 _"O-of course not! I... need to find out the truth too." (Uni)_

"Wait, what the hell? Uni ran off with Neptune as well? And to find out about small issues such as that?" Noire questioned, finding it unbelievable that Uni ran off for that reason.

"Maybe if you didn't isolate your sister all the time, this wouldn't have happened." Blanc said, obviously poking fun at Lonely Heart Noire.

"Huh? What was that!? One of _your_ sisters is also involved in this you know! And what's more, she might actually grow bigger than you if she succeeds in whatever she's up to."

"Like hell whatever she's up to will work!"

"Umm, please you two! This is not the time to fight with ourselves. If what we saw is correct, then we should head to Leanbox as they did in the video!" Nepgear interrupted, trying to solve the problem instead of hearing Noire and Blanc get more aggressive at each other.

"Well, since we know that it is the work of those three, we shouldn't need to head back to Leanbox..." Vert suggested, seeing that if it was Neptune, Ram, and Uni snooping around and stealing her secret recipe, then this would be so disastrous for all the other CPUs to see as well.

"What are you talking about? We need to find solid evidence that it is them. Let's go to Leanbox and look at your security cameras, I bet we'll find something _you're_ hiding as well," Noire said, obviously seeing through Vert's slightly panicked state.

There was no helping it, because everybody agreed it would be a good idea to go to Leanbox, and so they all went. Thanks to Neptune's party having visited all the nations now, this current group was able to quickly jump to Leanbox again without taking the boat ride. Still, for Vert, it was like walking to an execution, her darkest secret was about to be spilled to the entire world! Since Vert could not escape it, she reluctantly opened access to the security video and they indeed did find Neptune, Ram, and Uni up to the usual shenanigans. However, the breaking point was this particular part in the video:

 _"Well... I guess we can head back to Planeptune, I've got a nice place that can safely make this recipe. Though, to be safe, let's do some quests and take some shares from Vert so Histy won't get angry..." (Neptune)_

 _"Ok, that sounds good. Hehe... the day will come when I will be bigger than both Rom and Blanc combined!" (Ram)_

Even though it seemed like the end for Vert with everybody about to question her on the existence of such a concoction, there was in fact a much more pressing matter with them right now: Blanc proceeded to slam both her hands on the nearby table, with her face shaded and one glowing red eye that everybody knew all too well.

"Ram... you little shit!"

There was very little room for argument or discussion, Blanc simply needed to get to that Ram about right now. This of course, works out very favourably for Vert since nobody directed attention to her on why she had a recipe that could make CPUs bigger in a certain area. Naturally, there was a little bit of worry from Noire as well, because... well, it would be quite a story to see Lastation's CPU candidate "mature" further than the CPU and maybe cause drama. Whatever the case though, Vert was safe for now (Though she knew that while Blanc is understandably upset at what Ram said, she was probably next to be flattened by Blanc) and just merely followed along with everybody else to go and find where the troublemaker party has ran off to.

Of course, Nepgear just happened to know where Neptune might be, within one of the synthesis labs around Planeptune, which is generally easy to locate, and so everybody now made it a point to rush there. Now, Nepgear was not one to miss out of the details and so while following along the CPUs, she just had to ask a question. "Hey Vert... about that video footage, is that potion actually real?"

"Oh my, I didn't think anybody would actually notice. But to answer the question, I actually have not tried it myself. It just seemed like something neat at the time when Chika invented it, but with how I am naturally, I never needed to use it..."

"What's going to happen if they actually consume that thing then?"

"I'd rather not think about the result, which is why we're all heading there..."

Planeptune now had the "event" flag, and so everybody quick jumped to that location and ready to apprehend the party that took Vert's secret recipe and made the potion. Of course, since this was a confrontation, the CPUs had already activated HDD and was ready for anything. After all, Vert, Blanc, and Noire has beaten Neptune before, so this was not going to be any different... right?

"Uh oh, looks like we were found out..." Neptune said, looking at the guests that have all arrived.

"Neptune, I would have never thought you'd be the one to steal Leanbox's valued treasure. I suggest surrendering now," Green Heart said, more upset at the fact that Neptune made said potion from her recipe rather than taking most of Leanbox's shares.

Meanwhile, Blanc was doing her best to not maim Ram forever, "Ram... you little shit!"

"Hey, this isn't my idea. Umm, it's all Neptune's fault!" Ram lied.

And over to the left, the conversation was not that much better either, "Uni, did you seriously just believed in one of Neptune's ideas?"

"I did not, I was just doing work when Neptune showed up."

Of course, it did not help that Uni, Ram, and IF all hid behind Neptune and left everything to the care of Planeptune's CPU.

"Oh com'on you guys! You're all just blamin this on me now?" Neptune asked, her party clearly not wanting to deal with the unhappy CPUs.

"You did fight all of them before, right? This is a great chance to show off your abilities for us to learn." Uni said, having heard about some stories of Neptune going against all three other CPUs. Of course, Uni was interested in how Neptune could pull of that technique having heard about it before, though she wondered about how it was possible here.

"Yeah! You should totally show us _that_ technique too, you can win this!" Ram added, a little all too eager to see Neptune's fabled technique that won her against the other three CPUs.

"That again? Do I really have to...?" Neptune questioned, not wanting to do such a thing, but then she noticed she may have to:

 **Ram has left the party.**

 **Uni has left the party.**

 **IF has left the party.**

"That is so not cool you guys! At this rate I really will have to use _that_..."

"Sorry Nep, but you know we're no match for actual CPUs right? I did promise Compa to be home before dinner too," IF said, making the perfect excuse not to get too involved, knowing how fearsome Green Heart can be.

Neptune sighed, there does not seem to be a real way out of this predicament, and what is worse is that she noticed her own sword is broken from doing the secret guild quests earlier. "Ugh, fine. I'll have to handle this myself. But... Uni, let me borrow your gun, I am going to need it for this battle at least."

Uni tossed her gun to Neptune, and now that Neptune had a weapon, she at least stood a fighting chance. The main problem of course, is that none of Neptune's techniques involved guns (Besides the first game, and even then Neptune had acknowledged that it was retconned in _mk2_ ), so Neptune really did not have much to work with. Stepping forward, the other three CPUs had trapped Neptune in the middle of their triangle formation, ready for the most one-sided fight for the Nepth time.

Nepgear and Rom could only watch, worried at what might happen. While it was true that Neptune did not stand a chance against the other three CPUs, they overheard about the secret "technique" that Ram kept mentioning, and wondered if Neptune did have a secret weapon somehow.

"Well, I guess we can start with the core of the problem here: Neptune," Black Heart said, starting down at the poor Planeptune CPU that was probably about to get beaten over causing all sorts of trouble.

"Indeed, and unlike the game from earlier, there are no continues for dying here," Green Heart added, knowing that victory is assured.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure... The main character always has a way to provide a clutch victory..." Neptune said, while laughing nervously with the thought of what she wanted to do.

"I don't recall a time when you've ever won against the three of us, time to die!" White Heart said, charging in first and taking a swing at Neptune.

Neptune barely managed to dodge the attack, while immediately Green Heart charged forward to strike Neptune. Using the gun in hand, Neptune hit and changed direction of Green Heart's spear and avoided getting hit. However, the impact of deflecting the hit had made Neptune lose her balance, but she made the most of this by holding the gun in one hand and swinging the gun and hitting Green Heart behind the knees, temporarily making the CPU fall.

Neptune jumped back up and retreated while Black Heart rushed in with a sword strike. Having just recovered from getting up and unable to quickly respond, Neptune fired off two shots at Black Heart, one at the sword, and another at the hand holding the sword, just enough attack power to change direction of the sword's attack. However, the sword still grazed Neptune's left shoulder and left her in a bit of pain. It was at that moment that White Heart jumped at Neptune again, and this time, Neptune only braced herself for impact, this one was going to hurt. And it did. Neptune took the full force of White Heart's Axe and flew backwards and into the dirt.

"How arrogant, she didn't even bother to transform..." White Heart noted, annoyed that Neptune was supposedly not even taking the fight seriously.

"Maybe she has already given up?" Black Heart said, smiling at the battered Neptune barely getting back up on one knee.

Neptune however, smiled as she was sure of victory now. When she was surrounded by the three CPUs in a triangle formation, there was no easy way to dispatch of them, but with Green Heart, White Heart, and Black Heart all facing her directly now, this was all in her favour. "All right, time for my secret technique!"

The three CPUs prepared themselves, they knew about the infamous _Neptune Break_ , and even though Neptune had no sword at the moment, they just had to be ready because in the past, Planeptune's CPU had proven herself to be quite the combat pragmatist. Reaching back, Neptune pulled out a pouch, the same one she bought way earlier. "I knew this would come in handy, now take this!"

Neptune threw the pouch towards the CPUs, and while it was sudden, the CPUs only paused for one second. Unfortunately, that one second proved to be fatal, as Neptune aimed and shot the pouch with her gun in hand. There was no explosion or anything though, as the CPUs just stood there and watched, wondering why a pouch just suddenly exploded to seemingly nothing. However, the next seconds afterwards they realised just what happened. The three CPUs felt a huge burning and stinging sensation to their eyes, and they could only close their eyes in pain. The pouch was a pack of Nepeppers, the hottest kind in all of Gamindustri.

"Secret technique time!" Neptune said, charging forward to the CPUs. Now it was quite the reversal, the three CPUs did not know what to expect here because they were temporarily blinded and Neptune could do whatever she wanted. Was it going to be _Neptune Break_? _Victory Slash_? Or... _Inafune Sword V_ or even _Who did this Nova_? There was only uncertainty, and even the CPU Candidates on the sidelines wondered what Neptune would do (Except Ram, since Neptune showed her exactly how this was done and was just interested in learning a new way to prank Blanc).

As Neptune closed in on the three CPUs though, a certain image had blocked everybody's view. It was an image of a chibi Neptune while the worlds " **Please Stand By** " was written across the top of the image.

"Oh come on! We were just about to see the best part!" Ram complained, while everybody else was just startled by why the relax-o-vision had popped up. However, what happened beyond the censor was still audible though, so everybody listened closely:

"Hii-yah!"

 ***Grack!***

"FUUUUUUUUUUUC-" White Heart yelled, clearly in pain.

"Annnnd yah!"

 ***Crack!***

"EEEEEYYAAAAAAGH!" Black Heart screamed, also in pain.

"Wait Neptune!" Green Heart's voice protested, but to no success.

 ***Crunch!***

"Ugh!"

When the censor image was finally removed, the scene unfolded was quite a carnage: Blanc, Noire, and Vert (All having their HDD turned off now) where writhing on the ground covering their crotch area in _absolute_ pain while Neptune had her back faced to them as the undisputed victor of this fight. Of course, Neptune also made the obligatory disclaimer, "Dear Readers, please don't try this at home. You could seriously hurt somebody. Also, even if this was done to a male, it probably still isn't as funny as it is in the media."

Everybody watching (Except Ram, who was now laughing the laugh of her life) stood completely astonished at Neptune's clutch victory. Nepgear had oval-shaped blank eyes along with an open square-shaped mouth with sweat drops, and likewise Rom was equally surprised to see such a scene. Meanwhile, Uni took mental notes, as dirty as Neptune's tactics where, it was expected from being outnumbered and being a combat pragmatist (And the fact that she's seeing it in person now adds flavour to the experience). Even if it was just exploiting the universal weakness everybody knew about with 3 groin kicks.

IF had a blank stare too, she was not really expecting Neptune to pull that victory off, but to say she was surprised was an understatement. "Damn... Nep, you're scary..."

By now, Neptune had ran off back to the lab where the VSBP was kept, but she saw that all three VSBP were missing! "Hey! Who stole the potions?"

"What? Who could have stolen them?" Ram asked, having been laughing and not paying attention to the VSBP cooling in the background.

"Hmm, one of you must have done it! And it must be Iffy! She was late in joining the party!"

"What, that's impossible, we were all together during the battle, it was none of us." IF protested.

"Then it must be Ram, she wants to become bigger than Blanc and Rom!"

"I was laughing the entire time!"

"Oh! It must be Uni, she used my secret potion and took them away during the battle!"

"That potion was all used up when you made it earlier!" Uni protested as well, knowing Neptune is just throwing accusations for no good reason now.

However, they were all interrupted when a Hammer slammed in the ground near the entrance of the synthesis lab, and the party saw that Blanc was there, barely standing up. "NEP-TUNE!" She yelled, way beyond pissed off even when still in pain.

"Oh no, I forgot that Blanc had high defence stats and so she is starting to recover already... well, we'll have to solve this thief mystery another time, right now we should run before the others come up to us." Neptune said, transforming into Purple Heart and taking both Uni and Ram with her.

 **Ram has joined the party.**

 **Uni has joined the party.**

"Hey Nep, what about me?" IF asked, noticing the exclusion.

"There is no need to worry, I am sure the CPUs were after us in the first place. Just keep in contact with me if you find out who stole the potions. Right now, we have to retreat." Purple Heart said in response, while flying off to the direction of Virtua Forest Safe Zone.

After landing in the forest, Neptune deactivated HDD and began to form a plan with Ram and Uni. "Ok, so first things first, that was my secret technique, I hope you two got an idea of what happened back there. And second, we gotta run away where they can't catch us now."

"Where can we possibly run off to? Gamindustri only has so many places to hide..." Uni said, knowing that everybody will still be tracking them.

"No worries, I remember what happened at the end of the Prologue, and so that's why we've come here, follow me!" Neptune said, taking lead.

"I really don't get it, but I guess you know everything because you're actually from a New Game+?" Ram asked, thinking it was obvious how Neptune is pulling off all the impossible feats.

"Yeah, you could say that. Anyway, we're here!" Neptune said, arriving in a small corner of the forest. In the very same corner was a woman who began to awake thanks to the noise that Neptune's party was making.

"Uhhh, is it morning already?" She asked.

"It's just some time within the day lady, but... doesn't matter, just send us off to that other place?"

"H-huh? What're you talking about? And why..." The woman asked, unsure of what's going on and why she was there in the first place. The poor thing was none other than Rei Ryghts, a hopeless case of a person.

"Hm, that's right, It was not until the next day in the Prologue this was supposed to happen. Oh well, no matter. I'll have to break the sequence a bit, but here!" Neptune said, handing Rei a piece of paper. "Just read this!"

"Ummm ' _C-CPUs should just disappear!_ '...?" Rei said, then out of nowhere, a shining black crystal appeared from her and opened a portal.

"Are we supposed to jump into that?" Uni asked, pointing at the rather suspicious portal in mid air.

"Yeah, it's our only chance to escape without having to be hunted down..." Neptune replied.

"But..."

Just right behind them though, the party felt the intense anger and murderous aura of the 3 CPUs, and knowing that they were completely out of time, the party jumped in the portal and went elsewhere. Meanwhile, Rei was completely confused at what in the world is going on, three girls just spoke to her, and she read a line from a piece of paper and things happened. Things would get worse though, because now a Fairy sitting on a book appeared too.

"Whoa, that was totally... wait, this is all out of place! I haven't even met you yet!" Croire said, realising that Rei was supposed to collapse in an alley way of Planeptune tonight and then tomorrow was when Neptune would get sent off to the other dimension. "Tch, that bitch. She thinks she can just break the sequence due to her main character status?"

"I-I don't understand what's going on!" Rei complained.

Meanwhile, Neptune, Ram, and Uni had landed in the Otorii Great Forest of the Ultradimension, where they are now definitely safe from a berserk Blanc (The Hyperdimension one anyway). From the looks of things, it was not that different from Virtua Forest Safe Zone, but now they had begun to think about what to do.

"So what do we do from here?" Ram asked.

"Well, you still have the books we took earlier, right?" Neptune asked.

"Oh yeah, I suppose we'll have to make it all over again don't we?"

"Yeah, it'll be fine though. There are many dungeons for us to gather the materials. Oh, and there's also a Blanc and a Noire in this dimension too. Except that they don't have sisters here."

"Really? So I can have two sisters?" Uni asked.

"Kinda, yeah. Oh, but what's important is that none of us are CPUs while we're here."

"What?"

"Yeah, but I am thinking it works out for us you know? We handled those quests earlier in our home dimension, so we can actually make use of the exercise plan, vitamins, and protein drink. You know, like we can actually grow up here, and then become CPUs... And I didn't explain this before too, but one year here is only one day over at home. Since I rushed us through to here one day earlier, we actually have a year here before anything important is supposed to happen." Neptune explained, having everything all planned out.

"Oh, I see! Because we won't really grow when we're CPUs, so here we can grow up first and then become CPUs..." Ram replied, catching on to what Neptune is planning now.

"Yep! And that's what we're gonna do for now!"

"Wait Neptune, just a few questions. First, how do we become CPUs in this dimension. Second, how come the CPUs in our home world never remembered the first time you won against them, and thirdly, what does the title chapter even got to do with all these events?" Uni asked, noticing all the things out of place within the last little bit.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... You can become a CPU once you have a crystal thingie called a CPU Memory, but thankfully this is my Nepth play through and therefore I have spares that we can use. Next question, Blanc, Noire, and Vert never saw me kicking them in _that_ area as a defeat, and since it was so painful they just forgot it altogether, though I have made safeguards to prevent it from being used against me. Anyway, that last question... you know, just put the chapter title into a search engine, especially Neppertube, you'll understand..."

"Hm, I can actually look it up right now..." Uni said, remembering she has a devices for looking up into Neppertube, and so she typed the chapter title into the search bar and got her results. "Oh, I get it..."

Now, Ram had a realisation of her own and asked Neptune as well, "So, who actually stole the potion back from the lab there anyway?"

"Oh right! About that... that was probably my mistake, but before we jumped through to this dimension, Iffy texted me and said that the lab was actually preoccupied but left open. The lab owner musta came back while we were all busy and took them away or something. Not surprisingly of course, it was Gust that came in and swiped our goods. Anyway, enough with all of that for now, since we have all the time in the world, we've got some growing up to do!" Neptune exclaimed.

Since Neptune was leading the party and knew where most of the dungeons were, the party set out to gather materials again. In addition, they could also pick up recipes to make certain processor parts that might also increase their size when they do decide to become CPUs and transform again. There was so much to Nep, yet so little time...


End file.
